1. Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for assessing reliability of decoded voice, data and control channel transmissions.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on to user equipment (UE). Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Time Division—Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division—Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks. High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a data service offered on the downlink of WCDMA networks.
Some wireless communication networks, such as WCDMA, provide early voice frame termination functionality by which early decoding on voice transport channels is attempted by the UE receiver, so that the receiver may be transitioned into a low-power state to preserve battery power of the UE if the early decoding of the voice frame is deemed successful. Some of these voice transport channels do not carry Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) bits, which are used for error-detection purposes. In the absence of a CRC on early terminated voice frames, there may be no mechanism for the UE receiver to assess reliability of the early decoded frames, which may adversely affect system performance. Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism for assessment of the reliability of early decoded voice frames. In addition, decode reliability assessment may be also desired in the context of decoding of control channels, such as a Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) in WCDMA systems.